Junior musher Emily Robinson defeats Iditarod Champion Sass

Emily Robinson with lead dogs Vickie & Urchin 
at the finish of the Knik 200.
Screencap from Kale Casey Livefeed

In a finish very few saw coming, but most hoped for, Junior Musher Emily Robinson was first into the Knik 200 finish line Sunday afternoon. The teen was all smiles as her team ran under the Knik 200 banner and the crowd realized that it wasn't the 2022 Iditarod Champion Brent Sass as expected but the kid who won the race. 

Brent Sass led on the tracker for most of the second loop, having been passed by Emily before coming into the final checkpoint - though he regained the lead shortly after. As the teams came toward Knik Lake it was evident Emily was gaining on the champion team, but was quickly running out of real estate. In her post race interview with Kale Casey the young musher said that it was a foot race to the finish with both mushers "calling up" their team to encourage a little more speed - and Robinson Racing had that speed in the last mile.

The second day of the Knik 200 saw warmer temperatures, winds blew in late Saturday night and with them temps in the low 30s. There were seven scratches by noon Sunday, several due to musher injury and at least one wrong turn. Sunday afternoon saw another scratch, the weather possibly taking its toll as many of the teams were from the interior where training has been in the negative temperatures. Still the top two teams running were also from up north and seemed to handle the conditions just fine.

Ryan Redington who ran the first loop in the lead managed to hold onto third place - a placement not many expected when he took off Saturday morning considering he was running a bunch of young dogs, but after their 100 mile loop he left a few with handlers and took a smaller team into an even more competitive run. The reigning Iditarod champion was enjoying running dogs on a sled instead of an atv and no doubt was proud to see what his little team could do. Wade Marrs, running Ryan's A team, was given the go ahead before the race started to run the team however he wanted - so he ran them conservatively out of respect for wanting to preserve the team for Ryan's racing season.

Teams will continue to come into the finish, but the top six are all in.

It's not often that junior mushers get to run in 200 mile or more races, and in the Knik junior mushers must have completed at least two 150 mile junior races and proven they can handle a team on their own. There were two junior mushers in the Knik 200 field, Robinson and Isaac Redington. Both are signed up to run the Jr. Iditarod next month.